Morphology of a Tissue Culture: Defined

One of the aspects when it comes to experimenting and observing tissue culture is to understand its transformation as well as its attributes. So how do you exactly define the morphology of a tissue culture.

What Is Morphology?

In biology, the word “morphology” means the outward attributes of a certain organism as well as its component parts. These include its color, structure, shape, and pattern. This is different from physiology. This branch of science refers to the functions of the organism.

Gross morphology, on the other hand, refers to the principal or prominent components of a morphology of an organism. Descriptions of the gross morphology of an organism may include its general color, main features, and overall shape, to name a few. There isn’t any mention of finer details.

Comparative Morphology

Comparative morphology means comparing the physical properties of organisms. There are four known types:

1. Comparative Anatomy

This refers to the study of differences and similarities of organisms’ anatomies. It is closely associated with phylogeny, or the species’ evolution, and evolutionary biology. Two major concepts present in comparative anatomy include homologous structures analogous structures. The former means that physical structures like body parts appear similar because the organisms descended from one common source. These parts, however, may function similarly or not. A classic example can be the forelimb found in both whales and cats. The analogous structures, on the other hand, refer to similarity of organisms because of the environment they came from, not necessarily from where they descended. An example will be the torpedo-shaped body of sharks and porpoises.

2. Phenetics

Phenetics, or numerical taxonomy, is a process of classifying organisms by means of their general similarity such as their outward appearances and shared traits. This doesn’t take into consideration their evolution or phylogeny.

3. Plesiomorphy

Meaning “close form,” plesiomorphy refers to the character traits that are existing in two outgroups as well as their ancestors.

4. Apomorphy

This refers to the characteristics of organisms that are only manifesting in later generations.

Tissue Culture during Morphology Observation

Tissue culture is normally a general term applied to both cell and organ culture. Cell cultures can be obtained from cell suspensions or main tissue explants. Those that have a limited life span as a culture are referred to as primary cell cultures. Those that are transformed into cell lines and are abnormal are called continuous cell lines.

There should be daily examination of the culture. The morphology, cells’ density, as well as the medium’s color should be taken into consideration. Aside from the standard laboratory notebook, you should be able to maintain your own tissue culture log. The log should note down the following:

1. components of the medium as well as any alterations done 2. cell line’s name 3. dates the cells are split 4. culture’s doubling time 5. any observations related to the cells’ morphology

Growth Patterns of Tissue Culture

Normally, the cells will go through a lag phase. However, this primarily depends on factors, namely, the components of the medium, the density of the seeding, the type of cell, as well as previous handling. At their peak of metabolic activity, the cells can undergo tremendous growth. They will then settle into stationary phase, where there is consistency in relation to the number of cells. This usually happens when the entire growth surface is covered.

Harvesting of Cultured Cells

Cells are usually harvested when they’ve attained a population density that can suppress the growth of the cells. They may be harvested even when they’re still in lag phase. To maximize their transformation as well as for efficiency of such expected change, cells should be kept happy a possible. Cells are fed at least thrice for each week. Feeding of suspension cultures is done by diluting it to fresh medium. Adherent cultures, meanwhile, that don’t require any division can be fed through the removal of the old medium and adding forth newer one.

Once the cells started to crowd the growth surface or appear semi-confluent, there are a number of methods that you can apply in order to remove the cells for dilution from the growing surface.

One is through mechanical process. You can use a rubber spatula to physically separate the cells from its growth surface. This is easy and quick, but it can disrupt the cell, even causing its death. This technique is ideal if you are harvesting a lot of different cell samples for extract preparations.

You can also make use of proteolytic enzymes such as collagenase, pronase, and trypsin. When combined with EDTA, the cells will detach themselves from their growth surface. This is also a fast and reliable method. However, it can create damage to the cell’s surface through the digestion of exposed surface proteins. This proteolysis reaction may be fast terminated with addition of the entire serum containing the medium.

Tissue culture has been extensively used to study inherited disorders. By understanding the morphology of a tissue culture, experts and doctors can find definite cures for these illnesses.